Getting used to the new dog

I set another new personal best during this morning's ride: most miles in a single calendar year on the bike...5,027 miles! That's with 17 days left in the year and more miles to be added. I hope I can do another 200 miles depending on the weather and I might hitch onto a 100-miler that Mack is planning for this weekend. This morning's ride was in a low overcast, sorta foggy, mild temperature sort of event. Mike, Roland, and Dick were the only other riders to show up although conditions demanded that a larger crowd should have been there. It's just going to get colder as the week goes on.

Our friend, Jamie, came by last night to take our Christmas card picture with all the animals...ALL meaning both dogs AND the cat! That was interesting in its own way. What was nice for me was Jamie, Jonnene, and I remembering stories about Farley, talking almost as if he was still here. His drinking habits getting the most laughs since he was famous for leaving half of the water he gulped up strung out across the floor. That was really nice. Jamie is officially the first person that Coober has met since we brought him home and he was a little anxious/nervous meeting another person. He barked and backed off but in about five minutes he was getting friendly with her. We need to have him meet more people so that he doesn't become afraid of people he doesn't know. We're taking him on walks twice a day and Jonnene got this harness/lead that wraps around Coober's nose and makes him behave a bit better on these walks. So far it's working pretty good but he is challenging it, which we expected. We have to remember that Coober has spent most of his life at a shelter so walking on a leash is not natural for him (but he's doing very well considering). But we've survived our first week with him and we really like him. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks and how he takes to training.

Tomorrow night we will be at the Downtown Christmas Run, a 3.4 mile 3-lap run in downtown Shreveport. Hope it won't be too cold! I'm going to run with Jonnene the entire way or until/if her knee starts to act up. If the latter happens I will go on and get a faster run over the remaining distance. Otherwise we'll run together and just enjoy the crowd and the evening. Maybe we'll wear Santa hats!?